About the High School Huddle

Welcome to the Citizen-Times' constantly-updated blog for Western North Carolina high school sports. Features include breaking news, scores and stats, college recruiting updates and live blogs from some of the marquee games in WNC. Readers are encouraged to comment on posts, but personal attacks on current athletes, coaches and their families will not be tolerated and are subject to edit or removal at the moderator's discretion.

Dominick Cammarata helped the Evoshield Canes (Ga.) win the 17U Perfect Game World Series last month in Goodyear, Ariz.

Rocky Top awaits one of Western North Carolina’s premier catchers.

Roberson senior Dominick Cammarata has committed to play college baseball for Tennessee.

Cammarata earned All-Mountain Athletic Conference and All-WNC honors as a junior after batting .371 with 23 RBIs, five doubles and two home runs.

He plays showcase baseball for the Evoshield Canes (Ga.) and helped them win the 17 and under Perfect Game World Series last month in Goodyear, Ariz.

Cammarata said that Florida, Mississippi and North Carolina were among the other finalists in the recruiting process before he ultimately decided on the Volunteers. The Rams catcher took a recruiting visit to Knoxville, Tenn., in late July.

“I love the coaches and it’s a great community,” Cammarata said.

“Everyone made me feel so welcome and it’s nice that it’s close to home. Hopefully, if I keep working hard, I can start early there. It just felt like a great fit.”

Cammarata originally committed to another Southeastern Conference program (Georgia) in December, but reopened his recruiting after the Bulldogs made a coaching change.

Smoky Mountain senior Jordan Couch might as well wear a neon sign around his neck.

Couch netted a Western North Carolina single-season record 55 goals in 2012 to give the Mustangs striker 90 for his career.

It will take a herculean effort. But if anyone can challenge the WNC career record (2011 Hendersonville graduate Bryan Aguirre’s 156 goals), it could be Couch.

“Jordan had 55 goals last year and the next guy on our team had five,” Smoky Mountain coach Dolphus Brown said.

“If you’re doing a scouting report for Smoky Mountain, it’s not that hard to figure out. But at the same time, he is getting 2-3 (defenders) a game. And Jordan just wears them out. I wouldn’t want to mark him. He’s relentless.”

Couch is a true three-sport athlete for the Mustangs (soccer, baseball and basketball). Which makes it all the more impressive that he stepped up as the leading scorer in June’s gold-medal run by the West at the State Games of North Carolina.

He provided three of the team’s five goals despite hardly touching a soccer ball since November.

Couch said that any individual accolades he receives are secondary to Smoky Mountain’s success as a team.

“It means a lot to be recognized, but the most important thing to me is that we have a good season my senior year,” Couch said.

He is one of eight returning starters and nine seniors back from last year’s 14-9-3 team.

The rest of the 12th-grade group includes goalkeeper Zack Bryson as well as defenders Lance Buskey, Lukas Savage, Todd Martin and Hayden Hodgin. Jonah Caplinger and Brendon Deitz are back in the midfield and Couch will be joined up front by Aaron Dishman.

“I honestly think this is the most excited that any of us have ever been for a season,” Couch said.

“The players and coaches are holding ourselves to the highest expectation. We think this could be our year to do some damage. I have a faith in our team and our team has a faith in each other.”

Brown took the Mustangs to a team camp at UNC Greensboro this summer and was encouraged by their showing. Smoky Mountain scored wins over Burlington Williams, First Flight, Southeast Guilford and West Forsyth by a combined score of 11-2.

Couch provided eight of the team’s goals, junior Gabby Fuentes had the other three.

“We’re hoping for big things out of (Fuentes),” Brown said.

“All in all, we’re just optimistic. We came away from the UNCG camp feeling like we were challenged. And we’re going to play a tough schedule, but I feel like this group is ready.”

Couch is one of three forwards back from last year’s Citizen-Times All-WNC team. The others are Roberson senior Austin Stamey (22 goals, six assists last season) and Reynolds junior Hector Gutierrez (21 goals, 16 assists).

Braxton Davidson is being mentioned in the same breath as the highest-draft picks in Roberson history.

And it’s not just because Davidson is in San Diego, where he will join past Rams participants Cameron Maybin (2004) and Justin Jackson (2006) by playing in Sunday night’s Perfect Game All-American Classic at Petco Park.

The game is being televised nationally by the Major League Baseball Network at 8 p.m.

A big group of family and friends, as well as Roberson coaches and players, have organized a viewing party for that evening at a Biltmore Park restaurant.

“I’m speechless right now,” Davidson said.

“Not many kids from Asheville get this kind of opportunity. It’s so special to me. I’m just living a dream right now.”

Beyond the all-star selection itself, Davidson has a collection of tools that is moving him up major-league teams’ draft boards for 2014 as an outfielder. Namely, scouts like the senior’s ability to hit for average and power from the left side of the plate as well as his throwing arm.

Perfect Game even went so far as to speculate in Davidson’s bio for Sunday’s game that he could end up going higher in the draft than Maybin once did.

Maybin agreed to a Western North Carolina-record $2.65 million signing bonus after the Detroit Tigers selected the outfielder with the 10th overall pick in 2005. Maybin is currently on a rehab assignment in the San Diego Padres’ minor-league organization.

Jackson was taken by Toronto with the 45th overall pick in 2007 and signed for a $675,000 bonus. At the moment, Jackson is a pitcher for Single-A Dunedin (Fla.).

Davidson committed to the University of North Carolina as a sophomore and should have that as leverage in next year’s signing negotiations.

He trains in the offseason with Maybin, who has given Davidson a few wooden bats to use in Sunday night’s all-star game. Like every Perfect Game All-American, Davidson is also getting a customized glove from Rawlings.

And to top it off, Bowman will produce a baseball card for every All-American.

“It means a lot to know I have so much support back home, but this is a business trip for me,” Davidson said.

“I’m out here to handle business and that’s all. I know a lot of people are writing things about me, and whether it’s good or negative, I just try to take it the same way.”

As a junior, Davidson earned All-Mountain Athletic Conference and All-WNC honors as an infielder/outfielder/pitcher for the MAC 4-A champion Rams (21-10) after batting .403 with 30 RBIs, 30 walks, eight home runs and seven doubles. He was also 4-2 as a pitcher with a 2.79 earned-run average with 52 strikeouts in 32.2 innings pitched. Davidson was the winning pitcher in Game 2 of the 4-A Western Regional championship series when Roberson beat eventual state champion South Mecklenburg, 6-4, in Skyland.

Davidson plays showcase baseball in the summer for the North Carolina-based Impact Baseball Dirtbags.

Roberson coach Eric Filipek said that Davidson has the right mindset to handle all the attention that is being heaped on.

“One of the best things about Braxton is that he’s such a humble kid,” Filipek said.

“He almost gets uncomfortable reading about himself in the paper. And hopefully that (attitude) will stay with him. We’re excited for Braxton. It’s important for our younger guys to see what he’s done. He’s worked hard for absolutely everything he’s gotten.”

Fletcher pitcher Logan Allen will also be in San Diego for the non-televised Perfect Game All-American Underclasmen Games on Monday and Tuesday.

Allen is a rising junior who has enrolled at the IMG Academy in Bradenton, Fla., after playing his first two years of high school baseball at Roberson. Allen’s family plans to maintain its home in WNC while he attends school in Florida.

As of today, the following Western North Carolina seniors have committed to play college sports. The list has grown to 20 names. Coaches, parents and athletes, if you know of anyone we have missed, please contact me at apearson@citizen-times.com or 232-5863.

McDowell did not make a graceful return to the NCHSAA football playoffs in 2012.

The Titans’ offense isn’t designed to be aesthetically-pleasing though.

Operating out of the traditional I-formation, seniors Malique O’Neil (1,440 yards, 11 touchdowns in 2012) and Trey Anderson (1,077 yards, eight touchdowns) reeled off one tough run after another last fall. The results for McDowell were its first dual 1,000-yard rushers in school history and first postseason berth in nine years.

Fortunately for the Titans, both rushers are back from that 8-4 team. Unfortunately, just about everyone else is new.

McDowell only one other returning starter on offense (lineman Matt Robbins) and just three on the defensive side of the ball. The Titans have been picked fifth in the Mountain Athletic Conference coaches preseason poll conducted for the N.C. Prep Football News Yearbook.

“We’re just working as hard as we can every day to follow the blueprint. And we like what we see,” McDowell coach Carson Gowan said.

“We’ll have about 32 or 33 players which isn’t massive for a school our size, but it’s solid. The kids we’ve got are doing everything they can to win a football game.”

Sixteen of McDowell players will be seniors, including their only All-MAC selection from 2012 (O’Neil) and Robbins, who is a 6-foot-1, 240-pound center.

“We like to run the ball here and we’re going to fight up front for our running backs so they can do what they do,” Robbins said.

“We’re just working hard every day to get better.”

McDowell football coach Carson Gowan

Robbins will be handing off to junior quarterback Dallas Myers, who has good size to see over his line at 6-foot-2, 180 pounds. Myers backed up former 1,000-yard passer Grant Robinson (who is now at Greensboro College) his sophomore year, and is also listed on the current roster as a wide receiver and defensive back.

Anderson is encouraged by what he’s seen in the preseason so far.

“I have lot of confidence in (Myers) and our offensive line,” Anderson said.

“And it’s like I’ve told them, I promise I’ll get as many yards as I can if you block for me. Last year’s team had a lot of great athletes, and I feel like we’ve still got a lot of athletes who are working just as hard.”

Robbins is also one of three returning starters on the defensive line, along with fellow seniors Caine Ingle and Legend Pressley. McDowell had two shutouts in 2012 (Mitchell and North Buncombe).

The Titans open their season Aug. 23 at R-S Central. Their eight wins from last fall were their most since 1995.

Gowan was a McDowell assistant coach for two decades before getting the promotion to head coach five years ago.